Experiment 18 - The Shift Register

A shift register is one way to save data.
They can be found in modern computer chips in large numbers.
Find out how they work and how you build one using flip-flops.

The structure of a shift register is very similar to that of a counter.
But while the counter generates new data at each clock,
the purpose of a shift register is to store data.
The circuit diagram of a shift register with D flip-flop is shown below.

Circuit Diagram Shift Register.

With each clock signal Clk,
the information Data
is stored in Q3.
Simultaneously, the information that was stored at that time in
Q3, is now stored in
Q2, the information from
Q2 to
Q1.... and so on.
All information is shifted by one place at each clock signal....
hence the name shift register.

To properly understand how a shift register works, build it using the D flip-flops...